I was 8-years-old the first time I heard of Afghanistan. It was fall 2001, and in the weeks and months after 9/11, coverage of the war in Afghanistan appeared nearly every night on TV. The U.S. invaded the country less than a month after the attack on the Twin Towers, in order to destroy the perpetrators - the Al-Qaeda terrorist group - who had a safe haven there. At the time, Afghanistan was controlled by the Taliban, who were soon overthrown by U.S. and international forces. I remember watching blurry scenes of soldiers, guns, and journalists with bullet proof vests reporting from the frontlines of the ‘war on terror.’
I still remember what it felt like to learn about a country that I had never heard of before. I was perplexed, and somewhat in awe at how much I didn’t yet know. I could feel my knowledge of the world palpably expanding, in real time.
Yet, when my mom frantically picked me up from my 3rd grade classroom in Albany on the morning of September 11th, I understood next to nothing about what was actually happening that day, not to mention everything that would happen in Afghanistan in the months and years to come.
As we approach the 25th anniversary of 9/11, it’s impossible to comprehend the scale, magnitude, and consequence of the events that were set in motion that day.
I’m sure everyone listening today has their own story about how that September morning reverberated, in ways large and small, throughout everything that came next.
For me, 9/11 eventually led to a plane ticket to Afghanistan, where, 15 years later, I was starting a job with a non-profit. The organization was a cog in the machine of the international effort to bring stability and, supposedly, “development” to Afghanistan.
I was 23 at the time – less than a year out of college - and while I knew more about Afghanistan than I did when I was 8, I still had so much more to learn.
I stayed in that job only six months, but one job led to another, which led to another, which, eventually, led me to an organization called Charmaghz.
In 2019, I met the founder of Charmaghz - the Afghan education activist Freshta Karim - while we were working together on a USAID program in Afghanistan. At the time, Charmaghz was running mobile libraries to support children’s reading skills. Several years later, Freshta invited me to volunteer with Charmaghz. I’ve been on the team ever since, and in May of this year, I became the CEO.
In 2021, the Taliban re-took control of Afghanistan, after two decades of failed international intervention triggered by September 11th. Since then, the Taliban have quickly codified gender apartheid throughout the country. Women and girls are banned from public spaces, and from most jobs. Taliban laws permit child marriage, and it is nearly impossible for women to get a divorce. Mothers die in childbirth due to a lack of medical care, in part because of the absence of female doctors. Women are beaten, raped, and killed, with impunity.
A key component of this gender apartheid is making it as hard as possible for women and girls to be educated. Currently, 2.4 million girls are banned from attending school after 6th grade. With no 7th grade to enroll in, many girls now intentionally fail 6th grade so they can repeat the year - sometimes their only option to stay in school.
In 2025, the Taliban forcibly closed Charmaghz’s mobile library program. Our focus on teaching children - including girls - to think critically, read for fun, and ask questions posed a threat to the Taliban’s ideology. In response, and to maintain our commitment to Afghan children, we pivoted to online education instead.
Now, our mission at Charmaghz is to provide quality education to the segment of Afghan society that has arguably suffered the most from the events following 9/11: the women and girls of Afghanistan.
We are resisting the ban on girls’ secondary and higher education by providing quality online learning opportunities to more than 450 Afghan girls and women this year. We are working toward a future where women and girls become the heartbeat of a rising Afghanistan - and we believe that equipping girls with a quality education is the best way to instill that agency.
The students enrolled in our programs at Charmaghz are not the only ones who have been learning. Over the years, I’ve learned so much about Afghanistan that, as an 8-year-old - or even as a 23-year-old - I could never have imagined.
Unfortunately, in recent years, I - along with the rest of the world - have been learning about all the ways that the Taliban is erasing the futures of Afghan women and girls. But, I’ve also been learning about how an organization like Charmaghz can effectively fight back against the Taliban’s hideous policies, by preserving girls’ right to education. Much of this learning has been thanks to our Afghan team, including our Afghan women colleagues.
However, the more I learn about Afghanistan, the more I realize how much more there still is to understand. To help others learn, as I have, on Sunday I will be giving a talk about girls’ education in Afghanistan to the Capital District Humanist Society, at 1 p.m. in Latham. I hope to raise awareness about the circumstances of women and girls in Afghanistan, and the value of girls’ education.
Recently, I’ve been reflecting on so many things that have had to go wrong in the world for our work at Charmaghz to be necessary. Some of that ‘wrong’ started with 9/11 - though 9/11 itself was also the product of decades of decisions, individual and international. We cannot undo the past, but perhaps we can change how the future unfolds. And if there’s one thing I have learned in the past 25 years, it’s that setting Afghanistan on the path towards a better future must start with educating Afghan girls.
The event on Sunday, Sept. 13 is free and open to the public. More details can be found on the website of the Capital District Humanist Society: https://www.humanistsociety.net/
Liz Robinson is the chief executive officer of Charmahgz (CHAR-maaahGZ), a not-for-profit organization that provides online education programs to girls in Afghanistan.
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